Lies, Truths, and Consequences
by bingblot
Summary: A sort-of post-ep to "Law and Murder." Beckett finds out that Castle lied about not having seen "Forbidden Planet" before. Set early S5.


Disclaimer: "Castle" and everything you recognize belongs to ABC and Andrew Marlowe & Co.

Author's Note: Inspired after re-watching "Law & Murder."

**Lies, Truths, and Consequences**

It was a Friday and they were tired from running around all day chasing leads that never seemed to pan out. Even so—or because of that—Castle was a little surprised when Kate agreed so easily to his suggestion of a movie night at the loft.

She didn't come over every evening—he was still working on that—but Kate was Kate and she still needed some of her own time in her own space, her own apartment. Especially so after particularly grueling days, he'd learned. One day, he hoped—prayed—she would get to the point where she was fine with being with him, decompressing after long days with him. But for now, he would wait. And love the fact that after her decompressing sessions, her occasional evenings alone, she was usually the one to call him or text him before she turned up at the loft.

So he was a little surprised that she agreed to a movie night, a casual suggestion he'd made, and his heart leaped at her agreement, at the little smile on her face as she said yes. He tried not to show it but he knew he had reacted with a little too much enthusiasm, immediately starting to speculate about what they might do for dinner and then about movie choices.

Okay, so he knew he wasn't being subtle. He wasn't particularly good at that anyway and Kate knew him too well by now for him to easily fool her in anything. Oh well, he shrugged off the thought. What did it matter? She was here, now, in the loft with him, and so he really didn't need anything else.

"I'm going to get us some wine. You pick the movie," he offered as he stood up and headed for the wine storage cooler.

He was just pouring two glasses of the Chateauneuf du Pape—after all, the entire point of the evening was to decompress and, as he'd once told Kate, nothing helped to decompress like the Chateauneuf du Pape—when he heard her voice. "Castle?"

"What?" he asked, returning with glasses in hand.

"You want to tell me about this?" she asked.

For a split second, he was confused and then he focused on the DVD in her hand, recognizing the cover, even without being able to read the title from this distance. As, of course, he would. He hadn't watched _Forbidden Planet_ so many times for nothing.

He blinked, still a little confused. "It's _Forbidden Planet_," he replied. "You've seen it before. We watched it together—" he blurted out and then stopped, realization and memory crashing down on him.

He'd honestly forgotten it until now. That he'd… hidden the fact that he was very familiar with _Forbidden Planet_ in an attempt to spend some more time with her. Oh. Right.

"I liked it so much after we watched it that I went out and bought the DVD," he tried, in a desperate—and, he suspected, futile—attempt to get out of this. He'd had such hopes for a mellow evening in—with Kate willing to relax after a long day with him and not retreating back to her own apartment. Please, please, please, he found himself praying to whatever powers that might be that this stupid lie from nearly two years ago wouldn't wreck this night.

"Uh huh," she retorted skeptically. "Please, Castle, I'm a detective. You think I can't recognize when a DVD's years old and been watched a lot?"

Damn it. He set down the wine glasses carefully and took a small step towards her. He couldn't read her expression and it was making him nervous. Well, more nervous than he already was. He really, really didn't want Kate mad at him. Not now, not tonight. Not that he ever wanted her mad at him.

"Um, I can explain," he blurted out.

She raised an eyebrow. "Explain what? That you lied to me about not knowing anything about _Forbidden Planet_ just so that you could get a movie night after work with me where I even paid for the tickets and the popcorn?"

He was beginning to think hiding the truth from a detective was maybe not the best idea. He mentally kicked himself. What had he been thinking? He _knew_ Kate hated being lied to. "Ah, right, yeah, that. I can explain that. I—it was an impulse! A crazy, stupid impulse!" He tried for a cajoling, self-deprecating grin. "You know me and my impulse control problems. I was just disappointed when Alexis said she didn't want to go to the Angelika with me and then you mentioned going and, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time," he finished on something of a questioning note.

She didn't smile and he still couldn't read her expression—mental note, never try to play poker against Kate again—and he began to panic a little, seeing all his plans and hopes for this evening falling to pieces around him. "I'm sorry I lied," he said soberly and fervently. Because God knew he really was sorry, now, that he'd lied just to spend more time with Kate.

She studied him for another long few seconds and then when he was on the verge of—of something, he wasn't even quite sure what but groveling on his knees and swearing on a Bible and on Alexis's life that he would never ever lie to her again, about anything, was definitely an option—her lips curved and then she laughed. She _laughed_! "Don't look so scared, Rick."

It was the use of his first name that really told him he was safe. He let out the breath he'd been holding. "So you're not mad?"

She was still grinning as she came closer to him. "Mad that you wanted to go out with me so badly that you engaged in a rather elaborate subterfuge to do so?" She slipped her arms around his neck, one hand still holding _Forbidden Planet_ behind his head. "Actually, I think it's kind of sweet."

He grinned. "Sweet, huh? I can live with that." He stopped, something else occurring to him. "Wait, if you're not mad, then what was the point of that little charade just now making me panic that you were going to explode at me for lying?"

She shook her head a little, a teasing smirk playing on her lips. And even if he wanted to, he knew he really could not stay annoyed at her when she looked at him like that. God, he was so easy when it came to Kate Beckett. "Oh Castle, just because I'm not mad doesn't mean I didn't want to give you a little payback for lying to me."

He gaped at her a little. "You—you're evil," he finally said. "You nearly gave me a panic attack!"

She laughed softly. "Just don't lie to me and I won't need to make you pay."

"Fine," he grumbled, mostly for show. She could give him a hundred panic attacks as payback for anything if it meant that she would still be here, like this, her arms around his neck and smiling at him like she was, her eyes alight with affection and laughter.

"Anyway, it's not really that much of a surprise to find out that you lied that day, Castle."

"Why not? You totally believed me when I said it! You told me all about the movie on our way to the Angelika!"

"Oh, I believed you then, but whenever I've thought about it since, it seemed more unbelievable to me. I couldn't believe that Richard Castle, geek extraordinaire, man who has a life-size Boba Fett in his bathroom, would not have seen a cult classic like _Forbidden Planet_ before."

She had a point there. "Um, sorry?" he offered, now much less soberly than he had before. He shrugged a little. "I just really wanted to spend more time with you. I always wanted to spend more time with you back then so when I saw the chance, I took it."

Her expression softened into one that never ceased to amaze him whenever she looked at him like that, all the warmth in her eyes. She brushed her lips against his in a brief kiss. "I'm sorry I made you wait so long, Rick," she whispered softly against his lips.

"Hey, we've been over this, remember?" he reminded her gently. "You don't need to apologize anymore. I understand and we're here, together, now. No regrets, okay?"

She smiled slightly now. "Okay."

He kissed her quickly. "So, do you want to watch _Forbidden Planet_ again tonight?" he asked, wanting to get back to the easy, mellow atmosphere they'd had earlier.

"I don't know, Castle. What do you think?"

"Oh, I'm always up for watching _Forbidden Planet_," he assured her airily. "I can probably quote every line of dialogue from the movie while we're watching."

She narrowed her eyes a little. "If you do, I'll gag you with duct tape and believe me, I'll be _much_ more thorough about it than Alexis."

He gave an exaggeratedly put-upon sigh. "Alexis has been telling you stories, I see."

She smirked. "Actually, it was Martha that told me this one."

"Remind me to kick my mother out."

She laughed. "As if I'd let you do that to Martha, Castle."

He raised an eyebrow. "It is my loft. What makes you think you could stop me?"

"I can be very… persuasive," she breathed and the look she gave him through her lashes made him suddenly _much_ less interested in watching a movie. He bent his head but she ducked away, skipping backwards with a little laugh.

"Oh no, Castle. Not yet. You promised me a movie night, remember?"

She was evil. And a witch. And God, she was beautiful. She was always beautiful, of course, but in these moments when she was smiling and happy and teasing, she was so completely and utterly breathtaking that he just could not get over it, was always amazed by it.

"You really are evil," he groused, pretending to pout. "Why do I put up with you anyway?" he wondered aloud.

"Because you love me," she shot back immediately.

She said it lightly, teasingly, but he still stopped and stared for a moment, amazed all over again that somehow, some way, after all this time, they had come to a point where she could and would say those words to him so easily.

"Oh right, I do. Must've slipped my mind," he replied, trying to sound as light as she had been but, in spite of the humor of his words, his tone still came off sounding more solemn than not.

Her expression softened but then she turned back to his DVD collection. "Actually, Castle, I think I just want something to make me laugh tonight so I was thinking of another classic Leslie Nielsen movie, _Naked Gun_."

"Which one?"

"The first one, obviously. I never get tired of that baseball scene."

"Coolest baseball umpire ever," he commented at almost the same time, his words overlapping with hers.

She glanced at him and laughed. "I take it that's a yes?"

"It's definitely a yes."

He fell onto the couch, more than ready for a couple hours of lounging and laughing—with Kate—as she started the movie.

She settled next to him and he put his arm around her shoulders.

After a few minutes, she shifted closer until she was leaning against him, her head nestled against his shoulder, and he automatically tightened his arm around her.

"Mm, you're comfy, Castle," she half-mumbled.

"Glad to be of service, Detective," he quipped, trying to hide how her actions and her words pleased him—more than pleased him.

She huffed a soft laugh in response while he had one of his occasional moments of taking a mental step back and realizing that, yes, this was really his life now.

_This_ was what he'd dreamed of.

In the years of loving Kate and waiting for Kate, he had dreamed of the big moments—their first real kiss, not to distract a guard but for real; Kate telling him she loved him; marrying Kate… And God knows he'd fantasized about sleeping with Kate. But he'd also dreamed about and wanted the small moments, the normal, everyday moments in a relationship—lazy weekend mornings; quibbling over bathroom time or squabbling over who'd used up the last of the shampoo; grumbling to her, or her grumbling to him, when the alarm went off in the morning; deciding what to eat that day. And yes, he'd dreamed of relaxing movie nights to unwind, curled up together on the couch.

He glanced down at Kate as she laughed aloud over the movie. He turned his head to brush a kiss against her hair and thought, yeah, his dreams really had come true.

_~The End~_


End file.
